Some colorful changes have hit the TTL campus.
The grassy area behind the safe-home is now lined with half-buried tires, colorfully decorated in peach and white paint. Two brightly-painted tires, stacked atop each other, circle the thin tree in the middle of the yard as a makeshift bench of sorts. TTL’s large garden has been completely tilled for spring planting. And on the front of our guard house, near the entrance to the campus, a large TTL sign has been painted to increase our visibility here. You can see the sign a long way down the road, almost to the entrance to the hospital – a definite benefit for all those pointed in our direction by hospital staff.
Yesterday wrapped up a week of visits to the TTL campus by more than a dozen young representatives of Cadet 150, a military-affiliated program throughout the United Kingdom that, with the help of Sentebale, tackled a handful of projects in Lesotho this month as part of the 150th celebration of the cadets program.
The cadets’ presence here was yet another benefit of TTL’s great partnership with Sentebale.
During four separate visits, the cadets put their muscles to work tilling the gardens and digging the trenches that they eventually filled with the tires. They put their artistic skills to work painting the tires and the sign, which includes “Touching Tiny Lives” in bright lettering and the TTL symbol of the African continent with a handprint at the bottom. Everything looks great.
The cadets also donated lots of clothes and toys, and took time out to get to know the babies in the safe-home, who ate up the attention.
The backyard play area definitely has a spruced-up vibe that will increase the amount of stimulation for the babies when they head outside, and I know the sign will become a great beacon of hope for many of those looking in our direction for help.
The cadets have definitely left their mark on the TTL campus, just as I’m sure the babies here have left their mark on the cadets.
In that sense, I think we all benefited – just as planned.
The TTLF Fellow is a representative of the North American organisation The Tiny Lives Foundation. Based for one year in Mokhotlong, Lesotho, the TTLF Fellow serves in an administrative support capacity for the Basotho charity TTL.
0 Comments